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A longtime rural resident, I use my 60 plus years of life learning to opinionate here and elsewhere on the “interweb” on everything from politics to environmental issues. A believer in reasonable discourse rather than unhelpful attacks I try to give positive input to the blogesphere, so feel free to comment upon rural issues or anything else posted here. But don’t be surprised if you comments get zapped if you are not polite in your replys.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Jobs, or the lack thereof....

Its been a while since I looked at the situation regarding
employment in our area but with my son laid off due to lack of work a
very thin listing of positions available on both ?? and other on line
resources I thought I would take another look. The Rural Ontario
Institute has saved me wading through the government numbers with a
recent report which among other things compares the job situation in
urban areas verses non urban. It is no surprise to me that we here in
Grey Bruce are one of the highest unemployment areas amongst rural
areas which are already worse off than the urban areas which are also
struggling. All in all its not a pretty picture here in Ontario.

Here in part is what they have found......

Jobs have been declining in non-metro Ontario for 10 consecutive
months – from October, 2012 to June, 2013 the non-metro job decline
is larger than the 2001 recession and larger than the 2005-2006 recession. The present decline is approaching the depth of the
2009-2010 recession.
In contrast, metro areas continue to grow – the only period over
the last decade with metro job decline
was during the 2009-2010 recession, however, not all metro centres
are growing. Comparing June, 2013 to June, 2012, jobs have declined in Kingston, Peterborough,
Oshawa, Hamilton, KitchenerCambridge Waterloo, Guelph, Greater
Sudbury and Thunder Bay.

Two economic regions had a decline of jobs of 6% or more in
June, 2013, compared to June, 2012 – Muskoka-Kawarthas and Stratford-Bruce Peninsula
(includes Grey Bruce)
Other regions with declines were Kingston-Pembroke, Northeast and
a recent decline in Northwest.

Judging from the job listing which were starting to look
encouraging during the summer those numbers of jobs available have
declined considerably over recent months, given that many jobs in
this area tend to be seasonal this is no surprise but I do wonder how
many listing there will be in the spring, at the present time unless
you are a heath professional or a waitress or store clerk you are
SOL!

Looking at StatsCan’s latest job numbers, released last
week, BMO economist Benjamin Reitzes notes that Canada created fewer
than 175,000 net jobs in the year to date (meaning all of 2013 except
December).

As Owen points out it's not just about a paucity of jobs.
It's about the kind of jobs that are being created:
Even
the latest numbers for November look negative when digging into the
details. While the jobless rate held steady at 6.9 per cent and
Canada registered 22,000 new jobs during the month, 20,000 of those
were part-time, notes Erin Weir, an economist for the United
Steelworkers.

Certainly its looking very bleak in many communities
across Canada and more so in Ontario where several major food
processing plants have recently announced they are 'consolidating
operations' and shutting down their operations. This is particularly
troubling because is some instances it has directly impacted the
farming community that provided the input for these processing
plants. Instead of becoming more self-sufficient and growing and
processing our own food and providing jobs for out citizens it seems
that things are going the other way, will we soon be shipping all our
raw food out of country just to buy it back as processed canned
goods. It is no different in the manufacturing industries, we are
buying our “stuff” from Japan & China & the U.S.,
anywhere but 'made in Canada. No wonder there are no jobs, seems like
a self defeating circle where we will all soon be totally at the
mercy of foreign nations and those 'free' trade agreements.

No comments:

The Rant

I am a Canadian by choice not chance.
I am a country boy not a city slicker.
I have a dog not a doorbell, a collie not a rottweiler, a friend not a pet.
I walk in the woods not the streets.
I have a truck not a car, a barn not a garage, a septic system not a sewer.
I live on a gravel road not a paved road.
I have dial up not high speed, a mailbox not a letterbox, a yard light not a street light.
I shoot photo’s not trophies.
I am old not young, married not single, poor not rich, over taxed not over sexed.
I heat with wood not gas,
I respect my neighbors not numb-sculls, police not politicians , hikers not hunters.
I am a RURAL Canadian.